Gundam Wing: Double Vision
by MadamHydra
Summary: Duo returns from a mission in Gundam Wing... without Heero and without his braid. But then a second Duo Maxwell unexpectedly appears.
1. Part 1

Last major revision: 06/09/99 

======================================================================  
DOUBLE VISION: A Gundam Wing fic by Madamhydra  
(formerly titled "P.O.V.")  
======================================================================  
Part 1  
====================================================================== 

---------------  
Short Disclaimer: (Full Disclaimers at the end)  
Gundam Wing is copyrighted by its creators and all distributors of their work and used without permission.  
--------------- 

Quatre paced frantically, his gaze skittering between the hanger where Gundam Wing Zero stood alone, its familiar dark companion conspicuously absent, and the closed door to Duo's and Heero's bedroom. 

Wufei also kept a wary eye on that same doorway.  Even Trowa looked visibly... disturbed. 

Finally, his face wrinkled in grief and distress, Quatre whispered, "He doesn't cry.  He doesn't yell.  All he does is type away on that laptop with that... that smile on his face." 

Wufei barely managed to suppress a shiver at the reminder.  He supposed that he should find out what the hell happened on that last mission and to Shinigami so they could reassess their options, but he reluctantly admitted he lacked the courage to face that eerie, empty smile. 

Quatre couldn't stand it anymore.  Before either of his companions could stop him, he ran over to the closed door and quietly eased it open. 

The scene inside seemed unchanged.  The light from the laptop's monitor provided just enough illumination to show the unearthly little smile on the short-haired pilot's face as he continued to type with relentless efficiency. 

Quatre took a few quick gulps of air, then carefully eased himself into the room.  Trowa and Wufei silently followed.   

The usual conversational openers -- 'Are you all right?' or 'How are you feeling?' -- were totally pointless.  The boy sitting like a statue in front of the computer was obviously *not* all right and most likely never would be again.  And as for how the other pilot was feeling....  Quatre  had never seen that uncanny expression before and hoped to never seen that sort of smile again. 

"Heero... what... what happened to him...?" The blond pilot's voice trailed off uncertainly. 

Never taking his eyes off the computer screen where text scrolled by at a dizzying pace, the other pilot stopped typing and replied in a flat monotone. 

"I told you.  He's dead." 

Sensing that Quatre was floundering, Trowa quietly said, "Are you sure?" 

"Yes."  One of the hands lying next to the keyboard twitched slightly.  He finally turned toward Quatre and the others.  No one could mistake the pain and loss in that bright, searing gaze that seemed to rip right through them.... 

....but the chilling half-smile on his face never changed as he   
continued speaking in that same empty monotone. 

"I killed him myself." 

Wufei hissed sharply as a stunned Quatre clutched Trowa's arm for support.  When Wing Zero arrived alone at the rendezvous point a few hours before, they had guessed... no, they had *known* something terrible had happened to Heero and Duo, but the Chinese pilot had never imagined anything like this.   

Then again, he probably should have.   

The other Gundam pilot would never forgot the moment the lone, blood-splattered figure of Duo Maxwell emerged from cockpit of Wing Zero, his brown hair now hacked brutally short.   

Then two simple, familiar words.... 

"Ninmu kanryou." 

------------------------- 

[ MISSION TIME -02:00 ] 

"So what's the big rush about this mission, huh?" Duo asked in a chirpy voice. 

Heero didn't even bother to glare at his lover who was absently chewing on the end of his braid.  In his usual monotone, he said, "Secret research lab.  It recently received several shipments of power generating and other heavy-duty electrical equipment.  Whatever they're working on involves manipulating a great deal of energy." 

"Maybe they're developing a new type of beam weapon?" Quatre ventured, quickly flicking through a few printouts.  "Especially since it appears that nearly a third of OZ's best physics people have been transferred to the facility within the last year." 

"Possibly.  We do know that they're preparing to run a full-scale test within the next week.  What little information we have on this site was leaked by someone high up in OZ." 

Wufei scowled.  "That stinks of a trap." 

"Yes.  However, there's also strong evidence from neutral sources to suggest that this particular project is so controversial that factions within OZ itself would prefer that it never be completed," Heero said. 

Duo whistled softly.  "If whatever these scientists are doing is giving a couple of OZ bigshots the heebie-jeebies, it's got to be really nasty." 

"That's why we have orders to take out the facility now." 

"But what of the project data?" Trowa quietly asked. 

"Someone else is handling that.  Stopping the operational test is the primary objective." 

------------------------- 

[ MISSION TIME +00:20 ] 

"Yo!  Wasn't the weather supposed to be only partly cloudy?" Duo muttered irritably over the radio. 

Heero merely grunted, then took a quick glance at his monitors. Shinigami's black form was barely distinguishable from the surrounding rainswept darkness. 

"Then where the hell did this raging thunderstorm come from?  Visibility's shit and...."  The radio transmission broke up for an instant as a flurry of lightning bolts danced across the sky.  "....can't reach Wufei or Trowa...." 

"They know what they're supposed to do.  Keep your mind on the mission." 

As the other pilot snorted loudly in response, Heero switched off the radio, cutting off Duo's complaints.  But the cobalt-eyed pilot privately acknowledged that he also found the unusual weather more than a little troubling. 

------------------------- 

"I killed him myself." 

As Wufei, Trowa, and Quatre stared at Duo with a mixture of shock and dismay, behind them, the bedroom door suddenly opened. 

"What are all of you doing in here?" said a *very* familiar voice. 

Wufei nearly gave himself whiplash as he snapped his head around to stare behind him. 

The other Gundam pilots gaped in disbelief as Heero Yuy stood in the open doorway, impatiently waiting for an answer from the three boys clustered around his desk. 

"But... but aren't you supposed to be DEAD!?" sputtered Quatre. 

"No, I'm not," Heero replied in his usual cold monotone. 

Trowa frowned, then firmly grabbed Quatre and pulled the smaller boy away from Duo, who sat frozen at the desk in a rigidly attentive pose.  Wufei also backed away, his gaze switching rapidly between the supposedly deceased Heero and the strangely behaving Duo. 

Now that the other pilots had moved, Heero could now see that there was a person sitting in the shadows by his desk.  But more importantly, that unknown person was apparently messing with *his* laptop.  He stalked forward and snapped, "Who the hell do...." 

"You can't be here...," whispered Duo as he slowly rose to his feet and stepped out into the light streaming from the open doorway. 

Heero stared at the now short-haired pilot, his cobalt eyes going wide with surprise. 

"Heero's DEAD.  I should know."  Duo said flatly, never taking his eyes off the other pilot as he advanced another step.  "And if he's dead, you're nothing but a fucking impostor."  He glared at the other boy, icy fury burning in his blue-violet eyes. 

"Omae o korosu."  And with a single smooth motion, Duo lifted a gun and pointed it at Heero's head. 

Although his conscious mind might have been paralyzed by disbelief, Heero's well-trained reflexes instantly kicked in.  He dove for cover while simultaneously reaching for his own gun. 

The sudden flurry of motion finally snapped the other pilots out of their momentary trances.  Trowa and Quatre converged on Heero while Wufei pounced on Duo. 

------- 

The Chinese pilot got a nasty surprise as Duo neatly evaded his first attack and nearly caved in his face with a lightning fast elbow strike.  From the occasional sparring matches with the other pilots, Wufei was familiar with his comrades' individual fighting skills.  While Duo was quite competent at hand-to-hand combat, there was no way that the violet-eyed pilot was *this* good. 

As he ducked another ferocious blow, Wufei frantically thought, (If I didn't know better, I'd swear I was fighting HEERO!) 

------- 

In the meantime, Heero finally regained his voice and snarled, "What the HELL is going on!!!" 

Confronting the Wing Zero pilot with steely resolve, Trowa said evenly, "Hand over the gun.  At least until we figure out who's telling the truth."   

Before the other pilot could respond, they all heard the thud of running footsteps in the hallway.  Everyone froze as a wide-eyed Duo -- complete with that familiar meter-long braid swishing wildly about -- burst into the room. 

"HEERO!!!  You won't fucking well believe this!  There's ANOTHER damned Wing Zero in the rear hanger...!" 

------- 

Duo's shout abruptly trailed off as his fellow pilots stared at him as if he was some sort of bug-eyed monster.  He frantically glanced around the dimly lit bedroom for any clues to his friends' strange behavior and found that even Heero was looking pretty damn freaked out.   

(And if he's acting like THAT....) 

Then Duo choked out a soft, "Eep!" as he found himself staring into a shockingly familiar face... after all, he saw that very same face staring back at him from the mirror every morning. 

--------------------------------------------  
madamhydra@aol.com         /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/:E 

http://www.geocities.com/~madamhydra/  
-------------------------------------------- 

=====================================================================  
The Full Disclaimer  
All rights and privileges to Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing are trademarks and property of Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency, and associated parties.  The characters of these works are used WITHOUT permission for the purpose of entertainment only.  This work of fiction is not meant for sale or profit.  
Original portion of the fiction included here is considered to be the sole property and copyrighted to the author.  
===================================================================== 


	2. Part 2

Last major revision: 06/09/99  
Last modified: 06/16/99 

======================================================================  
DOUBLE VISION: A Gundam Wing fic by Madamhydra  
(formerly titled "P.O.V.")  
======================================================================  
Part 2:  At First Sight  
====================================================================== 

---------------  
Short Disclaimer: (Full Disclaimers at the end)  
Gundam Wing is copyrighted by its creators and all distributors of their work and used without permission.  
--------------- 

As the two Duo Maxwells stared fixedly at each other, the heads of the other Gundam pilots kept swiveling back and forth between the two of them, just like spectators at a tennis match.  The two Duos were virtually identical in the physical sense -- identical facial features, identical build.  Both wore the familiar black pants and shirt, with the exception of one Duo's waist-length braid and the dried bloodstains on the other Duo's clothes.   

But in their expressions and attitudes, their differences were like night and day. 

-------------------------------------------- 

Heero glared at the short-haired Duo standing on the opposite end of the room.  Every instinct he had was screaming, 'Wrong!  WRONG!!!'  Duo's eyes, no matter how angry or hurt he was feeling, never had the sort of hollowness or emptiness he saw in the other... person's blue-violet eyes.  But perhaps what infuriated Heero even more was the familiarity of that soulless stare....   

He had seen it all too many times in his own reflection. 

(But not in Duo's eyes!) 

Whoever that person was, he was only a pathetic copy -- similar in the surface details, perhaps, but he lacked Duo's energy...  his inner fire... his warmth... all the things that had irresistibly drawn him to Duo.   

Like dull cut glass next to a faceted diamond, it was no comparison at all. 

Heero felt a warm hand grasp his shoulder and turned his head slightly to look into Duo's eyes.  That wide-eyed indigo gaze contained shock, bewilderment, worry... and perhaps more than a little fear.  They seemed to ask Heero for some small reassurance in a suddenly insane world.  At that moment, Duo needed someone to believe in him... to believe that *he* was real. 

-------------------------------------------- 

It was fortunate that the short-haired Duo's gun had been lost early in during his fight with Wufei in view of what happened next. 

Perhaps it was the way that the other Duo touched Heero.  Perhaps it was the cold look of barely suppressed loathing in Heero's eyes as he stared at the short-haired Duo crouched in a fighting stance at the other end of the room... so very different from the subtly concerned look he then gave the long-haired Duo standing by his side.  But whatever it was, something snapped.  Before Wufei and the others could stop him, the short-haired Duo lunged across the room in a flash.   

Momentarily distracted by his lover's obvious distress, Heero only caught a flash of movement before he was almost carelessly shoved out of the way as one Duo went for the other Duo's throat. 

The long-haired pilot desperately twisted aside, but couldn't avoid the hard knee that slammed into his stomach.  The blow instantly doubled him over and sending shards of pain radiating through his belly.  Before he could collapse to the floor in a puddle of agony, his attacker grabbed his face and smashed his head into the wall.  Black and red sparks filled Duo's vision as the back of his skull connected with the sturdy wooden panels with a sickening crack.   

-------------------------------------------- 

Duo could distantly feel steely fingers clamping down on his windpipe... feel them grinding relentlessly into his neck vertebra.  Tendons and muscles shrieked in protest as one of the remorseless hands clamped onto his chin and started to yank his head around in the beginning of a painfully familiar maneuver.  He feebly tried to pry the other Duo's hands away from his throat, but it was totally useless.  Far away, he vaguely thought he could hear something snarling in rage. 

Now why had one of his idiot friends let such a pissed off wolf inside the house...?  Quatre, maybe, the softie... then again, Trowa was the one with the talent for handling animals... better calm the beast down, Trowa, before Wufei tries to skewer it... or before Heero shoots it... Heero can get so weird around pets.... 

But as darkness closed in, Duo couldn't help feeling just a wee bit sorry for the boy crouched on top of his chest, even though the homicidal maniac was hell-bent on wringing his neck like some damned chicken's.  After all, no one should harbor so much pain and sorrow in his eyes and soul. 

(I hate it when Heero's gets that look....) 

Then everything went black. 

-------------------------------------------- 

Wufei and Trowa reacted almost instantly and pounced on the short-haired Duo.  Despite their speed, Heero was there first.  He grabbed the other boy's arm to keep him from twisting Duo's head any further, then with his other hand slammed the butt of his pistol into the back of the short-haired Duo's head.  The only thing saving the attacker of HIS Duo from a bullet in the head was Heero's need for immediate action -- he had simply been in too much of a rush to flip the gun around in his hand and take aim. 

Still taking care not to jar Duo's head more than necessary, Heero kicked the unconscious intruder aside and quickly checked for a pulse.   

Quatre dropped to the floor beside them and watched Heero carefully examine Duo's throat and neck for several anxious minutes.  Although hardly the best at hand-to-hand combat, the blond pilot had been well trained.  He knew exactly what the short-haired Duo had been trying to do.   

"Did he...?"  (But he's breathing... barely, but he's breathing... he wouldn't be breathing if....) 

"No," Heero muttered with a sigh of relief.  But it had been very close.  Just a little more pressure and Duo's neck probably would have snapped like a twig.  His burning blue eyes flicked upward to the bloody smear where Duo's head impacted the wall.   

-------------------------------------------- 

While Heero and Quatre were tending to the braided Duo, Wufei and Trowa had prudently decided to haul the other Duo out of the bedroom and out of Heero's immediate reach. 

The Chinese pilot scowled at their unconscious prisoner and muttered, "Well, I guess we've all decided just who's the impostor." 

Trowa said nothing as he silently left the living room.  He returned a short time later with a sturdy length of rope, along with a pair of handcuffs.  Wufei caught the handcuffs tossed in his direction and gave them an odd look. 

Without the slightest change in expression, Trowa said, "They're military grade and fully functional." 

Wufei opened his mouth, then decided not to ask why Trowa just happened to have a pair of handcuffs lying around. 

"I found Wing Zero and Shinigami.  They're sitting in the front hanger," Trowa quietly added as they proceeded to carefully secure the short-haired Duo Maxwell impostor. 

Wufei suddenly stiffened.  "If this guy's a fake, then that other Wing Zero... it could be a bomb or it could be broadcasting our location to the enemy at this very moment!" 

Trowa shook his head.  "I did a quick scan on it.  It's not transmitting any signals, but Heero needs to check it out more thoroughly.  Since none of the techs are here, he's the one most familiar with Wing Zero's construction." 

"As soon as we can pry him away from Duo, you mean." 

Trowa shrugged.  He headed back to the bedroom and asked, "How is he?" 

At the moment, Quatre was carefully supporting Duo's head and neck as Heero carefully moved the unconscious boy to his bed.   

"I think he's going to be okay.  His neck's going to be really sore for the next couple of days and I don't think he's going to be able to do much talking, either," the blond pilot said with a smile of relief. 

Heero snorted at that, even as he carefully examined the ugly bruises that were just starting to blossom over Duo's throat and abdomen.   

"Heero?" 

"What?" came the curt reply to Trowa's question. 

"We need you to check out the Wing Zero in the rear hanger." 

Heero scowled.  "You mean to say that there *is* another Wing Zero here?" 

"Yes, and superficially identical to yours.  It isn't transmitting any signals as far as I know, but it could be booby-trapped or worse." 

Heero nodded grimly, but hesitated as Duo let out a faint, choked moan.   

"Stay still, baka."  But the rough words were belied by the quick gentle touch that quieted Duo's restlessness.  Heero silently watched his unconscious lover for a few seconds, then rose to his feet.  He gave Quatre a stern look, then stalked out of the bedroom.   

Trowa gave the blond pilot an inquiring glance, but Quatre shook his head and whispered, "I'll stay with him.  You better keep an eye on Heero.  Just in case...."   

Although it rarely showed, they both knew that the Wing pilot was fiercely protective of Duo.  And the furious growling sound Heero had been making when he saw what the short-haired Duo impostor had been trying to do to the real Duo Maxwell.... 

-------------------------------------------- 

In the living room, Heero abruptly halted and glared at the other Duo who was slowly regaining consciousness.   

Somehow sensing Heero's presence, the handcuffed and bound prisoner's head jerked upward, his violet eyes rapidly scanning the room like a wild animal desperately seeking a way out of a trap... or perhaps out of a terrible nightmare.  But if he was looking for some sort of escape or salvation, he didn't find it.  All he saw was cold cobalt eyes glittering with contempt and icy fury.  A flash of what could have been despair and raw misery flickered for across the prisoner's face, then vanished behind a familiar mask of blank, sullen indifference.  Although that fleeting expression of pain had not escaped anyone's notice, Wufei and Trowa kept their thoughts to themselves. 

As for Heero, he was in no mood to care. 

When the Chinese pilot observed Heero's hand twitch in a familiar gesture, he sharply reminded the other pilot, "We need answers."  The rest did not have to be said. 

"Hn."  The other pilot tossed a disk at Wufei.  "We managed to pull some of the project data from the installation.  It might have some connection to *him*."  Whoever their prisoner was, it was *not* Duo and Heero utterly refused to address him as such.  With those words, he stalked off to pry some secrets from the mysterious duplicate of his Gundam Wing Zero.   

And after that was done, he would do the same to Duo's impostor, even if that meant taking him apart, piece by piece. 

--------------------------------------------  
madamhydra@aol.com         /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/:E 

http://www.geocities.com/~madamhydra/  
-------------------------------------------- 

=====================================================================  
The Full Disclaimer  
All rights and privileges to Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing are trademarks and property of Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency, and associated parties. The characters of these works are used WITHOUT permission for the purpose of entertainment only.  This work of fiction is not meant for sale or profit.  
Original portion of the fiction included here is considered to be the sole property and copyrighted to the author.  
===================================================================== 


	3. Part 3

Last major revision: 06/16/99  
Last modified: 06/24/99 

Okay guys!  This is the VERY rough draft of Part 3.  As you might have noticed, I've renamed this story.  ^_^  It's short, but Real Life (tm) has not been kind to me.  My esteemed parental units AND my sister *would* decide to pay me a visit at the end of the quarter which is one of the busiest times at work!  ARGH!!!!  banging heads against wall 

Anyway, with all these doubles running around, things might get confusing, so I'd appreciate any criticism or comments you guys might have!  ^_^; 

Earlier parts of this fic can be found at:  
http://www.geocities.com/~madamhydra/GW.html 

======================================================================  
DOUBLE VISION: A Gundam Wing fic by Madamhydra  
(formerly titled "P.O.V.")  
======================================================================  
Part 3:  Truth in a Strand of Hair  
====================================================================== 

---------------  
Short Disclaimer: (Full Disclaimers at the end)  
Gundam Wing is copyrighted by its creators and all distributors of their work and used without permission.  
--------------- 

After a quick scan confirmed Trowa's findings that the duplicate Wing Zero wasn't broadcasting anything suspicious, Heero warily glanced inside the blood-splattered interior of the cockpit.  When nothing tried to blow up or otherwise kill him, he sat down and accessed the Gundam's systems.   

Heero stared at the password request for a few seconds.  His thoughts flashed back to the scene of the Duo impostor messing around with his laptop.  Prodded by an odd impulse, Heero tried his own password for *his* Wing Zero.   

It worked. 

Heero frowned as he scanned the file directories.  In organization, they were exactly the same as his own.  That couldn't be mere coincidence.  After quickly verifying the status of the duplicate Wing Zero's operating system, he turned his attention to the mission logs and data files.  Heero kept records on each of his fellow Gundam pilots and other important people.  Given the similarities so far between the information in the two Wing Zeros, it seemed only natural that the duplicate Wing Zero would have a matching set of personnel files. 

But perhaps more importantly, he wanted to know more about the Duo impostor. 

It didn't take long for Heero to locate the most recent cockpit log.  He scowled as he watched the video of the short-haired Duo impostor on the Wing Zero's monitors.  The flat intonation, the brooding stare, the tousled hair, even the green tanktop... all these things were very familiar.   

Heero had no illusions that his own behavior was anything except withdrawn and cold by most people's standards.  But to see *Duo* -- or someone who looked nearly identical to Duo -- acting that way made his stomach churn.  As he stared at the video of the fake Duo on the monitor, he abruptly realized what bothered him so much. 

The hair... or rather, the lack of hair. 

It wasn't just the simple cosmetic difference between short and long hair.  No, it went much deeper than that. 

No matter how much he complained how much trouble Duo's hair was and no matter how many times he threatened to slice the damn thing off, Heero seriously doubted he could ever bring himself to do it.  It was as if the braid was an integral part of the violet-eyed pilot.  Although Duo usually acted like it was just an odd quirk of vanity, Heero knew that that long rope of hair was important to Duo -- not because of its aesthetic appeal, but rather for what it symbolized. 

Some people cherished certain scars as a reminder of important events in their lives, both good and bad, but leave to Duo Maxwell to pick something different as his own particular memento -- a mass of long, silken hair that was no single shade but was a dazzling cascade of rich chestnut, mixed with darker browns and golden highlights... something that shimmered and flowed between one's fingers as if it almost had a life of its own. 

It was an oddly appropriate sort of reminder -- one that was both a burden and a pleasure, just as the memories that it represented held both sorrow and joy.  Heero knew that from the times when he brushed out, then braided Duo's hair.  His lover would always grow quiet and end up snuggled up against Heero, a faint wistful smile on his face as he seemed to drift into memories of happier times... rare moments of contentment and total trust.   

Duo's braid was much more than just a pretty, but inconvenient mass of hair.  Almost more than his smile or the brightness of his eyes, that silken rope represented Duo's willingness to remember... to feel. 

And it was the absence of that visible symbol that made the fake Duo seem like such a travesty of the real Duo Maxwell.  He was like a hollow shell of a human being... a person stripped of nearly every human emotion or feeling, leaving only the perfect soldier.... 

....just like Heero himself.... 

-------------------------------------------- 

In the bedroom, Quatre sat up as Duo stirred and mumbled sadly in a hoarse, barely audible voice. 

"Heero... I hate it when you get that empty look in your eyes...." 

-------------------------------------------- 

As he skimmed through the computer files, a particular one caught his attention.  The filename was apparently meaningless jumble of letters and numbers... but he had a file with the exact same name on *his* Wing Zero.  He was not surprised when the file required a separate password before it could be accessed.  Without thinking, he typed in a word.... 

The file was another video file showing Deathscythe Hell in a familiar-looking hanger area.  There was nothing that would seem to justify putting a secondary password on the file, but Heero had the strange feeling he knew exactly what was coming.  The picture suddenly shifted downward as the camera focused on the back of a slim, black-clad figure who stood on the catwalk staring up at Deathscythe Hell.  The black clothes were familiar, as well as the long braid... except the hair was the wrong color.  Instead of the rich chestnut brown, the person's hair was much darker, but not quite black.   

Heero sat frozen as the figure started to whirl around as if sensing he was being watched.  His breath clogged in his throat as the figure completed its turn and on the monitor, Heero Yuy saw *himself* glance up at the camera with an easy, cheerful grin and a mischievous gleam in his dark blue eyes.  He watched as the other Heero shouted something, then winked impishly at the camera before strolling away with his hands clasped behind his head and that playful little waggle of the hips.... 

He had seen the same still contemplation and the same sudden transformation into movement many times before... had seen the same long braid flicking through the air in response to the sharp turn of the head... only in *his* video file, it was Duo with his long, chestnut braid.  It was Duo who shouted 'Heero!' and who winked teasingly at his lover sitting up in the cockpit of Wing Zero....    

That video of Duo was one of Heero's guilty pleasures.  Like a cherished snapshot, he would often pull it up when he was alone to watch it over and over again, just to see Duo's smile and laughter.  No, it was better than any photograph.  A still picture couldn't possibly capture his lover's energy or his vibrancy. 

As the video of the other Heero Yuy looped and started over again, Heero felt an odd twinge inside him as he watched the other Heero's cheery grin and the warmth in those blue eyes.  If things had been different... if he had had a 'normal' childhood... could he have been someone like that? 

He shook his head angrily.  There was no point in wasting time in thinking about what-ifs and things that might have been.    

-------------------------------------------- 

Heero spent the next two hours grimly scanning every file in the duplicate Wing Zero's database.  What he found, especially in the personnel files, nearly made his jaw drop. 

He had always had a talent for evaluating information -- an instinct for telling whether a chunk of data or a piece of intelligence was genuine or whether it was fake.  And no matter how outlandish the information in this duplicate Wing Zero appeared to be, his instincts told him that it was real.  No one had cooked those data files up. 

That led to one inescapable conclusion. 

This Gundam came from somewhere else... not just another city or colony... but an entirely different *universe*.  An universe that was almost identical to his own, but flawed like the reflection in a slightly cracked mirror.  So much was familiar -- OZ, the Earth government, the colonies -- but that only made the differences all the more jarring.... 

....a warmly smiling Trowa Barton, who was the heir to the fabulously wealthy Barton fortune and whose family consisted of his father Dekim Barton, a noted pacifist who was recently murdered, and his sister Catherine, who was currently running the Barton family business while her brother was fighting.... 

....an expressionless Quatre with dead blue eyes, of whom virtually nothing was known except that he had worked as a member of a desert mercenary unit before becoming a Gundam Pilot.... 

....Wufei Chang, looking every inch the elegant and charming nobleman of the Dragon Clan, as he held a rose in one hand.... 

....Trieze Khushrenada, OZ general, his ginger hair severely drawn back in a ponytail and his blue eyes glittering with purpose and an angry, almost fanatical dedication... a widower whose young wife had died in a rebel attack.... 

....Milliard Peacecraft, platinum-haired diplomat and noted pacifist.... 

....a masked female Mobile Suit pilot with long, golden hair who called herself Zechs Marquess, who had been given the nickname of the Lightning Countess, and who had once been known as Relena Peacecraft.... 

....the now familiar image of a short-haired Duo Maxwell, in tanktop and biker shorts, staring at the camera with a cold, dangerous gleam in his icy violet eyes, and who stood next to and tried his best to ignore.... 

....a cheerfully grinning Heero Yuy, complete with dark brown hair braid that reached past his waist and bright blue eyes, who stood with his arm carelessly thrown around the glowering Duo's shoulders.... 

-------------------------------------------- 

For several moments, Heero could do nothing more than stare blankly at that last image.  When he finally leaned forward to pull up another file, his knee bumped the front console.  Suddenly, something soft and furry slithered across his leg.  For a startled moment, he thought it was a snake.  Heero whipped out his gun and pointed it the dark, long coiled shape lying on the cockpit floor.  When it didn't move, he cautiously took a closer look.  When he realized what the object was, he inhaled sharply, then slowly bent down and picked it up.   

It was a braid... a braid of dark brown hair over a meter long.  The thick end of the braid was crudely tied off with a torn scrap of cloth to keep it from unraveling.  That particular end of the braid was also jagged, as if it had been hastily hacked off.  As Heero ran his hand along the braid, little flecks of dark reddish brown flaked off onto his fingers and he caught the unmistakable metallic smell of blood.   

Heero knew instantly where that braid came from because its color exactly matched his own... just as it exactly matched the hair color of the laughing Heero whose image was now frozen on the cockpit monitor. 

And in that moment, the Wing Zero pilot knew that the other Heero Yuy was dead. 

--------------------------------------------  
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All rights and privileges to Shin Kidousenki Gundam Wing are trademarks and property of Sunrise, Bandai, Sotsu Agency, and associated parties. The characters of these works are used WITHOUT permission for the purpose of entertainment only.  This work of fiction is not meant for sale or profit.  
Original portion of the fiction included here is considered to be the sole property and copyrighted to the author.  
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